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New hours-of-service rules take effect

Enforcement for the hours-of-service changes made final in December 2011 began Monday, July 1, the date when carriers and drivers began being held accountable for complying with the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration’s on-duty requirements.

The most notable change to the hours rules are that drivers are now limited to one 34-hour restart per week, and every restart must include two 1 a.m. to 5 a.m. periods. Also, the amount of hours a driver can work in a week has been reduced from 82 to 70.

The new rules also include penalties for carriers who allow drivers to “egregiously” violate HOS rules, with “egregious” defined as allowing a driver to drive more than three hours beyond the limit.

The rule has technically been effective since February of last year, but enforcement begins today. The American Trucking Associations has fought the rule in court, along with the Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association.

Keep changing the rules and that gives the gov more opportunity to gain revenue. Confuse the drivers enough and they log by the "wrong" rules which gets them a ticket writing party. All about gov $$$ not safety at all.

why can't we make it very Simple 11 hours of driving 14 hours total in a day 70 hours in a week then 34 hour re start

plan and simple

i believe this is picking on truck drivers point blank

people can get behind the wheel of a Non commercial Vehicle and drive for 20 hours Straight nobody say a word to them when they fall a sleep and hit a commercial Vehicle they should pull drivers over at random a ask them how long have you been driving like DWIs i had a friend drive home from 12 hours of work fell asleep ran to the back of a school bus and was killed at the scene nobody ever says anything about people working 12 to 16 hours a day and getting into a vehicle and driving on a road

Well here is my question, I have been following this since the agency did "listening sessions" one of which I attended in person I am looking for the "flexibility" that seemed to be keynote at these sessions. ????

Isn't anyone doing the math on this one ??? Using the 14/11 hour rule and the 60 hour rule for 7 days, a driver using the new 34 hour restart can easily work 81 hours during a one week (7 day) period.

Additionally, the two 1:00 a.m. to 5:00a.m off-duty period are a requirement when using the 34 hour restart, but the 34 hour restart is an option. If one chooses not to use the 34 hour restart, and log hours the old way . . . rolling the days, then there is no requirement for the two 1:00 a.m. to 5:00a.m off-duty.

What a joke this is. I believe that a person knows what their body can and cannot do. Pushing the veteran drivers out. Just because the "we say so people" and their studies. People are all different. It is wrong to tell a CDL driver when they can drive. Back to old school and re-cap. Heck, you have non-commercial drivers putting 1000 miles behind them in 14 hours without an 11 hour break. Where is safety on american highways? There is so much discrimination here.

I don't think that the ATA needs to change their name just keep fighting the fight. The goodie two shoes out there never stop, if they don't get what they want, they just file another law-suit, that is why we are where we are now, and the FMCSA gets tired of fighting them.

This 82 vs. 70 hrs. in a week crap need to stop, that is the same as being able to drive 13.5 hrs in a day. if you take the breaks you can continue and it does not mean that the driver is fatigued it just means he or she is smarter than the FMCSA using the rule to his or her advantage. I know that common sense is not the rule here but it should be, we do not and have not and will not operate in a 24 hr. day 10 & 14 like some of these people think we should and if we did they could not handle the traffic it would cause, as well as the stats starting to go up with the increase in car & truck accidents because of it.